<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Everything I Wanted by chatnoiristhebest5</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25943053">Everything I Wanted</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatnoiristhebest5/pseuds/chatnoiristhebest5'>chatnoiristhebest5</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Gets a Hug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Is Not Okay, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Aged-Up Character(s), Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Married Life, Nightmares, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, They're twenty-two in this fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:35:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>960</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25943053</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatnoiristhebest5/pseuds/chatnoiristhebest5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It hadn't been a particularly good day for Adrien Agreste. His father had ordered him to model for a photoshoot, and on top of it all he had to study for his physics midterms. He had been busy all day and was told by Marinette to stay home and rest while she went on patrol by herself. </p><p>It was no surprise that he had nightmares.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>82</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Everything I Wanted</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Is this based off the song by Billed Eilish? Yeah, it is. Don't judge me tho, I've just been getting ideas from songs lately, ok???</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It hadn't been a particularly good day for Adrien Agreste. His father had ordered him to model for a photoshoot, and on top of it all he had to study for his physics midterms. He had been busy all day and was told by Marinette to stay home and rest while she went on patrol by herself. </p><p>It was no surprise that he had nightmares.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p><em>He didn't remember how he knew, but he was told he could fly. He bragged about it to Marinette, who rolled her eyes fondly at him as Ladybug. It was not strange for their dynamic to be as such when they were in their superhero suits. They were on top of the Eiffel Tower, and a thought came into his head, </em>If I can fly, then I can float down to the ground, right?</p><p><em>So he stepped off, and found himself falling. Marinette hadn't noticed</em>. <em>Despite the large crowds of people around him, nobody noticed. Not one person looked up at him and said anything. As the impact of him hitting the ground shattered his bones, he didn't hear anyone shout or cry.</em></p><p><em>For some reason, it didn't surprise him. He didn't think anybody would cry or notice. He thought fleetingly that maybe it was a dream, maybe it was a nightmare, but it felt so real. It felt like everyone he'd seen was right there</em>. </p><p>
  <em>As his eyes closed and everything around him went dark, he wondered why no one cared. He was a superhero, a savoir of Paris. Wouldn't anyone care if he died? Why didn't anyone care?</em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>He was trying to speak, but found his lungs filling with water. Panicked, he tried to scream, drowning and drifting deeper and deeper into the darkness. He heard a far away sound, but it was hard to figure out what it was.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Then he heard a voice--no--many voices, all of them loud and clear. There was Marinette's voice, Nino's, Alya's, Kagami's, Luka's, Juleka's, Rose's, Max's, Kim's, Alix's, Sabrina's, Chloe's, Lila's, Nathalie's, and his father's voices, and all of them said one word. "Weak."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He felt tears burning his eyes. Didn't they know he tried his best? The tears rolled down his cheeks. Didn't they know he'd always had to keep up an image? The image of a perfect son, a perfect person, with no problems or feelings or anything.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He was drowning, he knew that, but it wasn't in the water anymore. He drowned in negativity. All the lectures his father gave him, the disappointed sighs, the disapproving heads shaking, the words that hurt him. He was only human, he'd make mistakes, but if he could go back in time, would he do it again? If his father and everyone else who's ever said anything that hurt him knew the comments went straight to his head, would they say something else instead? What would they say instead?</em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>He jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat and tears streaking his cheeks. Beside him, Marinette, his wife, stirred, her eyes opening slightly. They shot open and she sat up straight upon seeing him. Her arms wrapped around him tight, then her hands moved to his face, wiping away and kissing his tears. Her eyebrows were furrowed, face scrunched up with worry.</p><p>"Kitty, what's wrong?" she whispered. He couldn't say anything, he just wrapped his arms around her tight, pulling her closer and closer to his chest. "Shhh, it's ok, I'm here, you're here, it's ok, we're ok," she cooed, over and over, her voice enough to soothe him. She pulled away enough to search his eyes, "What happened?"</p><p>"You didn't care." When her eyebrows furrowed even more, he continued, "In my dream, you didn't care. No one did. Not when I fell to my death from the Eiffel Tower, and not when I was drowning." His bottom lip trembled, "No one even noticed."</p><p>She pressed a soft kiss to his lips, "As long as I'm here, you have someone who cares. And it's not just me, there's Nino and Alya, and so many other people. All our classmates from highschool, they care."</p><p>Adrien looked away. They cared, and he knew it, but sometimes it was hard to shake the feeling that they only acted like that because they pitied him. Because they knew without them, he'd have no one. That he'd be all alone. </p><p>"I wish I could change the way you see yourself, that I could erase the horrible things your father did," she whispered before kissing him again. "I know I can't do that, but I want you to know, you didn't deserve any of that. One day, I hope you completely believe me when our friends and I tell you, he doesn't deserve you."</p><p>A stray tear rolled down her cheek. Adrien kissed her cheek, catching the tear with his lips. "I love you," he murmured. Because he really did. After all this time, after all these years, after so much pinning, heart ache, and misunderstandings, there she was, by his side, as always. "I love you, I love you, I love you." He kissed her forehead, her nose, her cheek, then her lips.</p><p>"I'll always be here for you, you know that, right?" she asked him, caressing his face, her thumbs rubbing his cheeks tenderly.</p><p>He nodded, because he knew. She was always there for him, by his side when he was at his worst, murmuring loving words and kissing him softly. She was the only person who knew him, all of him, and she still loved him anyway. He was lucky. So very lucky.</p><p>Even if he had trouble with the way he saw himself, he knew one thing for sure; with Marinette by his side, he had everything he wanted.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>